Mac OS needs updating - don't know what to choose

[Wolandit]

Hi,

our work machine is a early 2020 Intel 27'' iMac, with a 3,7ghz i5 6cores and 16gb ddr4, and Radeon Pro 580X 8 Gb.

It is still running the version of MacOs it shipped with, which is Catalina 10.15.2.

It was never updated beacause I am generally very cautious when updating the Os, particularly on a work machine which needs to be online and working every day without hitches or exceptions. We work with Adobe Creative Cloud, also often we are required to run old software versions which are not available from Adobe anymore. Those must continue to work after the update, namely 2022 versions of Indesign. Nevertheless, we MUST update the Os, because Adobe Indesign 2024 cannot be installed on this machine unless I update the OS at least to Big Sur, and other clients need us to be working wit the latest versions.
Also, security is an issue, so I'd like to update.

So, what should I update to? Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura? What's the less likely to cause problems, in the updating process and afterwards?

I'd like the machine not to be slowed down. Is this an issue with the latest macOs on Intel chips?

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi,

our work machine is a early 2020 Intel 27'' iMac, with a 3,7ghz i5 6cores and 16gb ddr4, and Radeon Pro 580X 8 Gb.

It is still running the version of MacOs it shipped with, which is Catalina 10.15.2.

It was never updated beacause I am generally very cautious when updating the Os, particularly on a work machine which needs to be online and working every day without hitches or exceptions. We work with Adobe Creative Cloud, also often we are required to run old software versions which are not available from Adobe anymore. Those must continue to work after the update, namely 2022 versions of Indesign. Nevertheless, we MUST update the Os, because Adobe Indesign 2024 cannot be installed on this machine unless I update the OS at least to Big Sur, and other clients need us to be working wit the latest versions.
Also, security is an issue, so I'd like to update.

So, what should I update to? Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura? What's the less likely to cause problems, in the updating process and afterwards?

I'd like the machine not to be slowed down. Is this an issue with the latest macOs on Intel chips?

That model iMac should be able to run macOS Sonoma. Just make sure you have reliable backup, ideally Time Machine, and then reboot into Recovery. Recovery will offer to install the newest version of macOS that your hardware can run. But if for some reason you have other devices or apps that are not compatible with Sonoma, you can choose an older version of macOS to install, but not from Recovery.

I have run Adobe CC apps, the newest versions, from Monterey all the way to macOS Sonoma 14.3 Beta (23D5033f) with no problem.

 

[Wolandit]

Yes the machine can theorethically run Sonoma, but I am wary of using very recent Os versions, which are progressively more Apple silicon oriented.
I read Ventura is no good already on old intel machines, so I probably will try Monterey.
Backup is done on Time Machine on a external usb drive, I have a couple recent ones. Anyway all work related important files are on dropbox, not in the backups, to keep them lean. I don’t have space on any physical drive for my entire dropbox folder anyway.

 

[TonyAguila]

Yes the machine can theorethically run Sonoma, but I am wary of using very recent Os versions, which are progressively more Apple silicon oriented.
I read Ventura is no good already on old intel machines, so I probably will try Monterey.
Backup is done on Time Machine on a external usb drive, I have a couple recent ones. Anyway all work related important files are on dropbox, not in the backups, to keep them lean. I don’t have space on any physical drive for my entire dropbox folder anyway.

Your 2020 Intel Mac should be fine. I have an older 2018 Intel Mac mini and it runs Sonoma very well. My Studio came with macOS Monterey but it runs best in Sonoma. I have external SSDs loaded with Monterey, Ventura, and Sonoma, in case I need to run older apps that are not Sonoma-compatible, but to date, I haven’t come across anything to require running in any of the older versions. I also noticed that most of the “weird” behaviors I previously encountered were resolved in Sonoma.